These emails show how upset NSA spies were with the 'Enemy of the State' film

Employees at the secretive National Security Agency were not too
happy about the 1998 blockbuster film "Enemy of the State," which
starred Will Smith.

That shouldn't come as a surprise — the spy agency was portrayed
as the villain — but now BuzzFeed News has
obtained internal emails that prove it.

"I saw a preview for the new movie 'Enemy of the State' and to my
surprise found out that NSA were the 'bad guys' in it," one NSA
employee wrote in a question to the agency's public-affairs team.

Directed by Tony Scott, the film was highly critical of the NSA.
The plot began with agency operatives killing a congressman
who was opposed to a surveillance bill — an action that was
caught on tape — setting off a cat-and-mouse game between
attorney Robert Dean (played by Smith) and agents trying to
pursue him.

The film depicted the agency as having vast technical know-how
and incredible surveillance capabilities (many of which were
later confirmed by the Edward Snowden leaks). Once he saw the
film, Lt. Gen Michael Hayden, then the NSA's director, saw a PR
nightmare, telling CNN in 2001: "I made the judgment that
we couldn't survive with the popular impression of this agency
being formed by the last Will Smith movie."

"Unfortunately, truth isn't always as riveting as fiction and
creative license may mean that 'the NSA,' as portrayed in a given
production, bears little resemblance to the place we all work,"
an NSA official wrote, in response to an employee question about
the NSA portrayed as the villain.

Though the Snowden documents have not shown evidence of NSA
agents' killing congressman and others it disagrees with, they
have offered evidence of many of the surveillance capabilities
the film depicted. These include telephone wiretaps, GPS
trackers, email intercepts, and other technology that has
typically been used in drone strikes
against suspected terrorists.

Buena
Vista

The NSA was initially supportive of the film and met with Scott,
producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and executive producer Andy Davis
with the hope of painting the agency in a positive light. Those
hopes were quickly dashed at the film's release, though some were
annoyed even as it was still in production.

"I was standing in the parking lot staring like an idiot,
wondering why this helicopter with some strange object underneath
it was hovering above me," an employee whose name was redacted
wrote, though the person's apparent nickname of "Cheebie" was
visible in the documents. "Will
Touchstone be getting in touch with me so I can get paid for my
appearance in this movie? Because I have no intention of allowing
my image to be used for free."

Unfortunately for Cheebie, the NSA's public-affairs team was
unable to stop the helicopter flyover because of FAA regulations.
"Believe me, we tried," a public-affairs official wrote.